Farm virus closes markets and abattoirs

The farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumbria has five-mile exclusion zone

As the Ministry of Agriculture said it may have found the source of the foot-and-mouth outbreak, a Welsh farming union is calling for all public footpaths to be closed.

As fears of the virus spreading escalate, the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia national parks have issued appeals urging visitors to stay away over the weekend.

And National Farmers' Union Cymru President Hugh Richards is calling on the Welsh Assembly to close all public footpaths in the countryside as a precautionary measure to limit the potential risk of contamination.

We believe that this farm could be the source of the disease

Ministry of Agriculture spokeswoman

The Ministry of Agriculture believes it may have found the source of the outbreak of the virus at a farm in Northumberland.

Despite no cases of the virus found in Wales, farmers are already counting the cost of the total export ban plus a week-long closure of all Livestock and Auctioneers Association markets and abattoirs.

Assembly Agriculture Minister Carwyn Jones is due to hold talks with farming leaders in a bid to get exports from Wales resumed quickly if the area if found to be free of the disease.

He is due to hold a press conference - along with representatives of the National Farmers' Union and the Farmers' Union of Wales - at the assembly at 1630GMT on Friday.

Assembly Agriculture Minister Carwyn Jones

Meanwhile at the suspected outbreak source in Heddon-on-the-Wall, pigs on the farm are being slaughtered after a five-mile animal exclusion zone was established on Thursday night.

The Ministry of Agriculture said the Northumberland farm was known to have recently delivered pigs to the Cheale Meats abattoir in Essex, where the outbreak was first confirmed on Tuesday sending the farming industry into crisis once again.

Vets are at the farm testing dozens of animals, while investigations continue at an estimated 600 farms believed to have supplied the Essex abattoir in recent weeks.

The confirmation of new foot-and-mouth cases at the Heddon-on-the-Wall farm and another farm in Essex bring the total number of definite cases up to five.

A ministry spokesman said: "The disease appears to have been at this farm for some time before the Essex case was confirmed.

"We believe that this farm could be the source of the disease."

Click here to see exclusion zone areas.

But officials have warned that even if the Heddon-on-the-Wall farm is established to be the source of the disease, there may still be some way to go before the disease is contained.

"We are not just looking for the source but for other cases as well," added the spokesman.

Further developments

"Establishing the source would be of great help but it would certainly not be the end of this problem."

With the weekend approaching, ramblers and other non-essential visitors have been warned to stay away from rural areas, as hunting and some racing is cancelled.

Snowdonia National Park Chief Executive Mark Fitton said: "We are recommending that people should put off coming to the countryside this weekend because it could do so much damage to the future of farming if this disease spreads to Wales."

A pig farm in Aberdeenshire, which has not yet been named, is one of a number in Scotland now being tested for suspected foot-and-mouth disease.

As the disease spreads, two farms in Buckinghamshire and the Isle of Wight have exclusion zones around them, and restrictions are in place at two farms in Gloucestershire and Yorkshire.

Hygiene controls

Woodchester Park, a National Trust park near Stroud in Gloucestershire, has been closed to the public following a suspected outbreak at a nearby farm.

Meanwhile, UN health officials have warned that foot-and-mouth disease has become a global crisis.

The chief of the animal health service at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that the type of the disease discovered in Essex had reached pandemic proportions.

As efforts continued to trace the source of the disease, Kevin Pearce, spokesman for the National Farmers' Union, said vigilance and not panic would keep the outbreak under control.

Any contamination in the environment can be spread by people or vehicles or other animals

Professor Jim Scudamore

Government Chief Veterinary officer Professor Jim Scudamore has said precautions were necessary because infected animals "will excrete or pass the virus out in all sorts of tissues, they can breathe it out, so any contamination in the environment can be spread by people or vehicles or other animals".

Foot-and-mouth, a viral disease which causes blisters on the mouth and hooves of livestock, is highly contagious but poses little threat to humans.

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